Documents of various types can be created on personal computers with the different document creation software that is available. Word processing software allows creation of large, complex text documents. Graphics processing software allows creation of graphics images of varying complexity. Desktop publishing software allows significant text documents to be merged with graphics images to create professional-style published documents.
Software is now available for creating graphical message documents such as greeting cards, brochures, and other short, simple documents having relatively simple graphics components and brief text components. Unlike desktop publishing software, which typically is directed to business uses by professionals, graphical message document software is directed to personal uses and allows extensive manipulation of relatively small amounts of text and graphics within the particular document format.
One aspect of graphical message document software is that it typically allows users to create documents only with predefined configurations. This contrasts with prior conventional word processing, graphics, and desktop publishing software, which allow creation of documents with generally arbitrary configurations, including the number of pages. Despite this significant difference, conventional graphical message document software includes the same user interface tools used by more generalized types of document creation software.
With reference to selecting a particular page or portion of a document, conventional graphical user interfaces employ a sequential or scrolling interface model. A user moves from one portion of a document to another by scrolling past all intervening portions of the document. The scrolling typically is in increments of display lines, display screens, or document pages. Conventional graphical user interfaces employ a similar model for image display magnification or zooming (i.e., increasing or decreasing the magnification of a document being displayed). In these applications, a user can zoom within a document portion by incrementally increasing or decreasing the display image magnification. The zooming typically is in fixed percentage increments (e.g., one or five percent) relative to a default image size.
Such generalized user interface models are relatively useful for documents with arbitrary configurations. Sequential accessing of document portions or magnifications is relatively simple and conceptually clear for many users. A disadvantage, however, is that such interface models are relatively cumbersome. A user typically must scan past all intervening portions of the document to move from a current portion to another portion and similarly must scan through all intermediate magnifications when zooming.
For relatively short creative documents, such as graphical message documents like greeting cards, conventional sequential interface models are less than ideal for several reasons. Creative documents frequently undergo revision or modification in a non-linear sequence. A conventional sequential interface model requires the user to scan past undesired document portions or magnifications to access desired portions or magnifications. This is inefficient and burdensome. Moreover, the adaptability of conventional sequential interface models for documents of arbitrary configuration is generally unnecessary for graphical message documents, which typically have relatively constrained configurations.